


monsters in the night

by treescape



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Emperor Vader, M/M, Possessive Darth Vader, Suitless Darth Vader, Vaderwan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treescape/pseuds/treescape
Summary: He goes under cover of darkness, as he always does, but it’s difficult to say if that makes it better or worse.Both, he thinks, except that neither does the courtesy of cancelling the other out. In the end, of course, it doesn’t matter; it isn’t as if he could bear to do this under countenance of light—not the hazy glare of Coruscant’s sun, nor the steady blaze within the Palace’s depths.It is pure fancy, he knows. His betrayals are no more or no less for when they are executed.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Vader
Comments: 12
Kudos: 101





	monsters in the night

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: "If I'm a monster, what are you?" + Vaderwan (from [THIS](https://treescape.tumblr.com/post/642774644435320833/prompt-list-i) prompt list).

He goes under cover of darkness, as he always does, but it’s difficult to say if that makes it better or worse. _Both_ , he thinks, except that neither does the courtesy of cancelling the other out. In the end, of course, it doesn’t matter; it isn’t as if he could bear to do this under countenance of light—not the hazy glare of Coruscant’s sun, nor the steady blaze within the Palace’s depths.

It is pure fancy, he knows. His betrayals are no more or no less for when they are executed.

When Obi-Wan slips through the door, Anakin is already seated at the low table in his chambers, long legs stretched before him in the dim glow of night through the windows. He wonders if Anakin sits here every night, even the ones when Obi-Wan _doesn’t_ come. Those are fewer and fewer, these days. There had been a time, once, when Obi-Wan could go weeks without making the short trek through empty corridors in the dark, staring at the impenetrable ceiling of his own room and counting the seconds as they passed before dawn.

Now, he eases himself into the chair across from Anakin for the third time in a week, and tries to ignore the relief that spreads like certainty through his veins.

Anakin doesn’t bother with the lights, doesn't make Obi-Wan endure the simulation of day. There is enough to see by from without, though just barely, enough to catch along the bronzed sweep of Anakin’s curls and the plush curve of his mouth. Obi-Wan would tell himself that Anakin prefers the darkness of these encounters as much as he does, but he knows too well the uncomfortable truth.

The darkness is for him.

“What will it be this time?” Anakin asks, and if his voice holds a lightness to it, he draws his legs towards himself a little too sharply so he can lean forward, elbows braced carelessly on his knees. He seems to sit less restlessly here than he does on his throne, but perhaps that’s just a trick of the night. 

“I don’t much care,” Obi-Wan tells him, but the flippancy of his words is no shield for the honesty beneath.

Anakin shrugs and reaches for the cards that sit on the table between them, obtrusive and alone. It is a simple deck, of the type one might play in the lowest levels of the city, the edges beginning to show the wear of long use. They both know it isn’t of consequence which variant they play; Obi-Wan will be able to feel the hot quell of Anakin’s eyes and the settling weight of his proximity whatever the rules.

Some might find it odd, Obi-Wan thinks, that he feels more guilt over this appetite for Anakin’s mere presence than he will feel even later, when they lie upon Anakin’s sheets. It is a betrayal of the light to remain here whatever he does, not truly a prisoner but never free, a betrayal of _himself_ that he gives in so readily.

It is a betrayal most of all that sometimes it feels no betrayal at all.

Anakin shuffles cleanly and they play in silence for a time, the rasp of cards and the rustle of sleeves as they gesture a thunder in the room. They bet with nothing, because winning is beside the point; the point is the sound of air as it moves through Anakin’s lungs, and the scent of Anakin’s body just feet from his, and the taste of Anakin’s heartbeat on his tongue.

“Subtle,” Anakin says when Obi-Wan finally sets his hand on the table, the cards neat and precise, and Obi-Wan is almost surprised to see the Evil One edged against Endurance. “I already know you think I’m a monster.”

There are a million things Obi-Wan could say, and more he’s not sure he knows how to. In the end, he settles for noncommittal. “You dealt the cards,” he reminds Anakin evenly, and leaves them on the table as he sits back. He can barely make out their pattern from this angle, but they burn in his memory all the same.

Anakin’s fingers are too tight on his own cards, but he speaks as if they aren’t. “And if I’m a monster, what are you?” 

The question holds no real malice, but it hits closely nonetheless. It is a question that lives in Obi-Wan’s bones. “What do _you_ think I am?”

“I don’t much care,” Anakin says. His mind feels like unfettered chaos, his hair gilded like beauty in the night. He is the most dangerous thing Obi-Wan has ever seen—more dangerous than a darkness without stars, more dangerous than the Emperor he has replaced. He tosses his cards on the table, and Obi-Wan gets just a glimpse of the Nine of Staves as it peeks out beneath the Master of Sabers. “So long as you’re mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how they got here except that Anakin/Vader probably killed Sidious 😅
> 
> Note on the sabacc: The goal is to get to (or as close as possible to) either +23 or -23. Obi-Wan gets to -23. Anakin gets to +23. Anakin wins because +23 wins over -23.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I'm [treescape](https://treescape.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you ever want to come say hi!


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